Friend.Tech’s TVL surges by $13.5m in two weeks

After ‘clinical death’ Web3-social network Friend.Tech is once again showing growth in activity. Since August 28, the total value locked in the protocol jumped 210% — from $6.4m to $19.95m. 

According to data from the Dune dashboard, on September 9 the platform’s 24-hour trading volume was $12.32 million — the third-largest value in the project’s history. By September 11 the figure had fallen to $2.52 million.

The total commissions collected on Friend.Tech reached $12.14 million with 140,909 users who made at least one trade.

Friend.Tech launched on 10 August on the Ethereum-based second layer Base, supported by Coinbase. It is a decentralised social platform integrated with X that allows tokenising participants’ profiles.

Less than three weeks after launch, the app’s activity metrics sharply declined. Commission volume and the number of transactions fell by almost 90%. At that time the community declared the project dead.

Initially the app had numerous technical glitches and a very limited feature set. Over time the developers added a number of new capabilities, such as photo uploads, card payments, and new sections in the feed.

Signing up is even easier with our new credit card onboarding. Tell your friends who aren’t familiar with crypto to check it out pic.twitter.com/8h9QQ6Gxju

— friend.tech (@friendtech) September 4, 2023

Likely, the uptick in activity was aided by an influx of new participants not from the crypto industry. In recent weeks, YouTube bloggers and OnlyFans content creators have shown interest in Friend.Tech.

A spokesperson for the Web3 social network, using the alias Pancakesbrah, said that Matt Walker, a UC Berkeley neurobiology professor and the author of Why We Sleep, had joined the project.

I love to see stuff like this bro, @sleepdiplomat just joined, which hammers home the point some people don’t get, this isn’t an app for just crypto bros, every vertical can find value on friend tech, everyone bro pic.twitter.com/c7EpuGQtDt

— Pancakesbrah (actually Based) (@Pancakesbrah) September 10, 2023

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“I love to see stuff like this! Bro [Matt Walker] just joined, which underscores the point some people don’t get — this app isn’t just for crypto bros; every vertical can find value in Friend.Tech,” wrote Pancakesbrah.

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In August, the project team warned of possible blocks for using copies or imitators of the app. The post triggered a backlash, so the post was deleted after a few hours, and the project’s co-founder, using the nickname Racer, issued an apology for the ‘silly statement’.